live well and self sustainably producing organic food in a beautiful place

Welcome to Puquelehue: An organic farm in the south of Chile

Our smallholding is in the Region del BioBio 500 km south of Santiago, near Santa Juana. We are 75 km or so up the River Bio Bio from Concepcion. (See photo birds eye view and view of property)

Description

_Parcelita Puquelehue is in a sheltered plain, the majority of which is ‘vega’ (or wet meadow land), surrounded by hills. We have been growing crops organically for nearly 10 years or so and we rear a few animals.

Puquelehue covers over 6 hectares (12 acres)

Who we are and what you could do with the property

We are not a commercial enterprise or wealthy landowners. In the future you may be able to develop the contacts we have with an organic agriculture educational centre based on the other side of the river and establish a partnership of some kind to turn Puquelehue into a demonstration centre for school children and others that want to learn about organic farming.

_We have recently planted a hectare of Eucalyptus trees which have a high value on the market but if you wanted to use it on the farm it is ideal for fence posts, firewood and a host of other uses.

_A local chemist has shown interest in forming a partnership to grow herbs for medicinal purposes at Puquelehue, a place where they can be sure they will be 100% organic and will be harvested at the correct time to achieve the greatest healing potential.

_There is a slow but growing interest in organic food in Chile but even if you don't want to get really commercial you can live self sustainably very easily.

Animal and human accomodation

At the moment we have a dairy cow and a little bull. We use her for milk and to make compost. There is a cow housing of a generous size which has a store for animal feed and tools above it on the 2nd level. (See video cow housing )

_The chickens are free range and they have a nice coup to lay eggs in and to roost in at night. (see video chicken coup) We have over a dozen chickens at the moment whoose eggs l sell and a family of ducks who are content enough to lay eggs near their pond.

_We live in the main house which is luxurious in comparison with the houses the local people live in. ( see photos main bedroom and view of orchard, dining room from veranda, view across veranda, living room)

_The main house has 2 bathrooms, a study which could serve as a bedroom and 2 large bedrooms. There is a kitchen/dining area and a large lounge. We have a large woodstove in the kitchen of the main house connected to the water system to produce hot water, plus a gas geezer ( el calefont ) for hotwater when we are not using the wood stove. (See videos welcome to puquelehue, living room , main bedroom, study, kitchen, dining room, main bathroom, second bathroom, second bedroom )

_There is also an annex (see photo view of the annex and view of annex from hill ) which has a workshop area, a kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a shower which is linked up to another wood stove and a passive solar water heater.The parcelita (smallholding) has electricity and crystal clearwater from a bore hole (artesian well). The water is pumped up to a water tower (see video water tower) At the moment contact byphone is problematic and therefore no internet but there are internet cafes in Santa Juana, the nearest sizeable settlement.

Growing areas

_We have a ‘cold’ greenhouse which gets hot in the summer. ( see photos inside the greenhouse and view of the greenhouse) We grow veg in it all year round and tomatos as a main crop. We have many rows of strawberries and raspberries with which we make all sorts of home produce including jam which l have found easy tosell to friends and colleagues in Concepcion.